Hamada Shōji, Kitaōji Rosanjin, and the Reception of Japanese Pottery in the Early Cold War United States

Abstract

A series of events and individuals in the 1950s and early 1960s sparked American interest in Japanese pottery and production described as primitive, timeless, and Zen. Of particular prominence were Americans’ encounters with the ceramics and presentations of Hamada Shōji and Kitaōji Rosanjin. This essay explores the multiple modalities of primitivism and Orientalism inherent in the American reception of their pottery in light of early Cold War cultural diplomacy and US–Japan relations. Chronicling the American reception of Japanese pottery in this era reveals how a variety of ideas and agents on both sides of the Pacific affected shifts of American sentiment towards Japan.